Buildings are responsible for 40% of electricity use in Europe and contribute to approximately 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. Research over the past 20 years has led the design and construction of advanced low-energy buildings, which use natural ventilation and interact symbiotically with the external environment to maintain comfortable internal conditions. The design of these buildings raises many fluid mechanical challenges and many questions remain outstanding. The focus of this project will be on how convective processes lead to the development of temperature stratification in atria and other tall spaces.

The project will involve three modelling components: theoretical, laboratory and numerical. Theoretical models of airflow and thermal stratification have been developed by our group over the past 25 years. These models have been informed by laboratory analogous of building spaces in which the flow within small-scale models of generic buildings are studied. The numerical component will be to embed the theoretical models within a numerical building dynamic thermal simulation programme.